2018: The year of the business adviser

Enterprise Nation founder Emma Jones looks ahead to the coming year and why business advice and advisers will feature highly.

At this time of year, I reflect on work gone by and plans to come.

There's one single thought to which I keep returning and that is our determination in 2018 to ensure that small businesses who are members of Enterprise Nation get access to the right advice, at the right time.

This coming year presents the small business owner with opportunity and challenge in equal measure. With the challenge of a shaky domestic market comes the opportunity of an open and international one.

With the challenge of keeping up with the fast moving pace of technology comes the opportunity to embrace online tools to make sales, manage money and be efficient.

Whether opportunity or challenge, there's one crucial element to ensure a business owner can make the most of any situation and that's access to trusted business advice.

In the last 12 months, Enterprise Nation has hired advisers in areas from social media to corporate finance. All of them have played a distinct role in helping us become a more resilient company.

And yet despite the clear benefits that come from taking advice, only around 50% of entrepreneurs go about seeking it!

In the New Year and throughout 2018 our resolution at Enterprise Nation is to ensure members get access to content that suits their stage of business, and advisers who suit their style and needs.

This will be through development of a new platform (read more about that here), plugging in advisers to our major live events, running the Top 50 Advisers competition, and spotlighting hundreds of stories where we can visibly show how asking for advice has helped an entrepreneur; both at a personal and on a corporate level.

If you’re a small business owner, I encourage you to reach out for advice in the areas you feel present the greatest challenge and opportunity.

If you're an adviser, I call on you to make yourself known. In 2018 the small businesses of Britain will need you!